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Hoshi Journal 1
Delores snorted as she laughed causing cigarette smoke to come out her nostrils. "Mister, Stunterson? is it?" she asked incredulously. Hoshi nodded. She gave another small laugh before continuing. "Alright, I'll bite pipsqueak." Delores made a little show of snuffing out the cigarette she was smoking and then lighting a new one. "We need something fresh and new. The people are tired of the same old cliched 'The 10 Million NuYen Man' rehashed a thousand times. *They* want to see 'real' criminals... But real criminals are boring as hell; the public just doesn't know it. So we're looking for those people with a special talent or style that separates them from the herd." She pauses to take a long draw on the cigarette. "So, you have exactly 5 minutes to impress me before I kick your skinny ass out of my office." she blew the smoke directly at Hoshi. "I'd make it something good too. We want the best for this show." Hoshi chuckled as a smile crossed his face. "Well, you might want to answer that call then." "What call? I don't ..." Her words were cut short as an AR pop-up announced that she had an incoming call. "Ah, yes well I was told to expect this sort of thing, but we're not hiring a hacker my dear so this isn't very impressive..." Hoshi cut her off. "No no no, you misunderstand. Answer the call." Delores tapped the "Answer" button and a little AR video window popped up. "What am I looking at here? A car chase? It's not the 20th century any more you know..." "Keep watching, this is the part where it gets interesting, right after this upcoming intersection." They both sat watching the video as it played out. Suddenly a six legged robotic tank came into view as the compact car they had been watching had to suddenly swerve around it. The robot turned and gave chase, actually catching up with the fleeing car. The car and the robot jockey for position as the robot seems intent on stopping the car. Suddenly the car takes advantage of a pocket of traffic on the otherwise empty road and begins to pull away the camera zooming out to keep the car and the robot in frame. From the top of the robot, a Vindicator minigun suddenly popped-up from a hidden compartment and fired several long bursts at the car. The car swerved madly trying to avoid the incoming fire, but the robot managed a solid hit on one of the rear tires shredding it instantly. Skidding madly, the care flipped over and ground to a halt on the shoulder of the road. The camera suddenly zooms in on the robot. Standing on top of it is a man in an all black jumpsuit with a bright silver visor. Without warning the figure vanishes from the screen and the robot tank tears off into the night as flashing lights herald the arrival of emergency vehicles. The video ends. Hoshi leaned back in his chair and cupped his hands behind his head. "Cylde shot that footage of me. I've put it up on the Matrix in, uh a few strategic places and a lot of people are talking about this mysterious..." Delores coughed harshly and loudly. "Wait, that's you? You're this 'Silent Devil' character?" "The one and only!" replied Hoshi with a huge grin on his face. "I suppose you already know that the 'Silent Devil' character tests well with the 18-35 year old males, and almost as well with the 12-17 year olds so Jamie will be happy about that, plenty of marketing opportunities there..." Hoshi clapped his hand together and leaned forward. "Great! I can start right away. Any idea what we're getting paid? I've heard several different numbers..." "Calm down there Devil-boy... You kids today." Delores sighed. "This town used to have standards... well no but it used to have morals... err, well at least it used to have a sort of 'Honor Among Thieves' or a code or something, not like today. Today it's all fast fast fast. Get something new, something fresh. Bah! We used to take time to compose quality scripts. Now a days most shows are written by expert systems. Did you know that? Some bozos actually sat down and wrote a computer program to write Trid scripts! And the worst thing is that some of them are actually not that bad!" She paused and looked into the distance as if regretting something. "So do I get this gig or what?" asked Hoshi, suddenly sounding impatient. Deloris gave a look that would have, if it could have, certainly killed Hoshi and possibly destroyed half the wall behind him. "Fuck you kid." She drew on her cigarette in order to pause dramatically. "Yes you got it. Now get the hell out of my office." As Hoshi stood to leave, she added "I'll call you, don't call me. I mean that."